Boynton Beach, or Jupiter?

[djtimmy77]

If you are here long enough, do both. Jupiter and Boynton are both fantastic. You are going to need a rental car either way so it wouldn't be hard to dive both places.

Like everyone else has said, Boynton has a lot more color due to it being shallower.

I would only consider JDC and Sl8r in Jupiter based on my experiences.

As for Boynton, Kevin at UE is great, in fact my next boat dives are already booked with him. I have not been with the other ops in Boynton.

 

[danvolker]

I had more or less made my mind up to take my next dive vacation in Jupiter. Then I met a guy on the dive boat today in Sint Maarten, who lives in the West Palm Beach area, and he said he thought the diving was better in Boynton Beach.

So now I'm not sure what to do, I suppose I could try both, has anyone here dived both and if so which is you're favorite and why?

Thanks Nivek

Here is another option.....Dive Jupiter, Juno, and all of Palm beach all the way south through Boynton and Delray, and even Boca...on ONE dive operation...Except it is more of a Dive Yacht than a dive boat, since you come up from diving, then dry off and go into an air-conditioned Salon to eat the great meal just prepared for you.....Take a nap or sleep whenever tired.....

You can do 5 or more dives per day....it just depends on YOU. No need for rental car, no need to waste time or money on a hotel....Cost is comparable to staying at a decent hotel like a Hilton, but this gets you way more diving....
This is the Shearwater Liveaboard.....
See it on www.facebook.com/wild.diving

 

[Nivek Llekots]

Thanks for all the great feedback. From what I read, and as I'm a fairly experienced diver who has lived the last eight years in Curacao and Sint Maarten, I think that Jupiter is probably a better destination for me personally. I have a few thousand dives on pretty reefs in both Curacao and Bonaire under my belt, and although we do get sharks, rays and turtles here in Sint Maarten, the opportunity of seeing more of the bigger stuff is my main reason for this vacation.

Having said that I will be in Florida for 14 days and staying on Singer Island, so I think at least one trip down to Boynton Beach is on the cards, as well of course at least a couple of dives at The Heron Bridge .

The live-aboard sounds great, but I will have my non diving wife with me who is expecting to get a little shopping done whilst in Florida.

A couple of final questions, when I do go to Boynton Beach what are the "must do dive sites" I should be looking for, and who in your opinion is the best operator to do them with?

Finally I've seen quite a few operators mentioned for Jupiter, can anyone give me any recommendations on their favorites, considering that I would like to try an avoid large crowded boats, and I'm also not really into diving with "spear fishing divers"?

Thanks again for the feedback so far!
Nivek

PS. if you need any tips on Curacao or Sint Maarten let me know !

 

[danvolker]

Thanks for all the great feedback. From what I read and as I'm a fairly experienced diver who has lived the last eight years in Curacao and Sint Maarten, I think that Jupiter is probably a better destination for me personally. I have a few thousand dives on pretty reefs in both Curacao and Bonaire under my belt, and although we do get sharks, rays and turtles here in Sint Maarten, the opportunity of seeing more of the bigger stuff is my main reason for this vacation.

Having said that I will be in Florida for 14 days and staying on Singer Island, so I think at least one trip down to Boynton Beach is on the cards, as well of course as at least a couple of dives at The Heron Bridge .

The sound of the live-aboard sounds great, but I will have my non diving wife with me who is expecting to get a little shopping done whilst in Florida.

A couple of final questions, when I do go to Boynton Beach what are the "must do dive sites" I should be looking for, and who in your opinion is the best operator to do them with?

Finally I've seen quite a few operators mentioned for Jupiter, can anyone give me any recommendations on their favorites, considering that I would like to try an avoid large crowded boats, and I'm also not really into diving with "spear fishing divers"?

Thanks again for the feedback so far!
Nivek

PS. if you need any tips on Curacao or Sint Maarten let me know !

In Boynton:

1. Wreck of the Castor
2. Horseshoe Reef
3. Pauls Reef and the Islands just north of it
4. Lynns Reef
5. Delray Reef

Make sure you do the Fingers ( outside reef) on several dives...then after 10 to 15 minutes, head up to the crown....and if you want, you can swim across the crown to the inshore ledge...its not that far.

 

[uncfnp]

Dan,

It may just be my server but your Facebook link doesn't work for me. Is Horseshoe and Paul's considered Boynton Beach dives? We have done them quite frequently with Narcosis out of WPB.

Nivek,

Many of the boats out of Jupiter and WPB will have spearos. But the boats I know drop the hunters separately from the reef divers.

With that much time, I would spread my dives out over several dive ops to avoid too many dives at the same sites. Even so, dives out of WPB can overlap Jupiter dives to the north and now it looks like there may be some overlap with Boynton dives to the south. We also stay on Singer Island and typically dive with Narcosis but it is a large boat, often with hunters, but a great crew and captain.

Scuba Diving West Palm Beach Florida with Narcosis Dive Charters

 

[danvolker]

Dan,

It may just be my server but your Facebook link doesn't work for me. Is Horseshoe and Paul's considered Boynton Beach dives? We have done them quite frequently with Narcosis out of WPB.

Nivek,

Many of the boats out of Jupiter and WPB will have spearos. But the boats I know drop the hunters separately from the reef divers.

With that much time, I would spread my dives out over several dive ops to avoid too many dives at the same sites. Even so, dives out of WPB can overlap Jupiter dives to the north and now it looks like there may be some overlap with Boynton dives to the south. We also stay on Singer Island and typically dive with Narcosis but it is a large boat, often with hunters, but a great crew and captain.

Scuba Diving West Palm Beach Florida with Narcosis Dive Charters

The Boynton boats can turn right or left when they exit the Boynton Inlet....So if they go right--south, that is toward Lynn's and Castor, etc...If they turn left--North, in about 15 minutes on splashdown( at their speed) you are in front of the Lake Worth Pier...dive site being Casino....which I have drifted into Horseshoe from....and then the next reef north of Horseshoe of big interest, is Pauls.

This is in the middle between the Lake Worth( Palm Beach) inlet and the Boynton Inlet....so either boats like Narcosis, or boats like Splashdown will be easily able to run here.


As to the facebook page...please try this..... https://www.facebook.com/WILD.DIVING

Could also be searched inside of FB with " SFDJ "
Please let me know if you still are not getting it...I would want to get to the bottom of that

 

[uncfnp]

Thanks Dan. The problem was mine. It's working now.

So when we dive Boynton in a few weeks we'll ask if the Castor and points south is an option.

 

[djtimmy77]

When we go to Boynton we pretty much always go south. Castor, Black Condo, Clubhouse, Tabletops, etc.

Have done the outer fingers once but was underwhelmed, not much extra to see for the reduced dive time as it is deeper.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Thanks for all the great feedback. From what I read, and as I'm a fairly experienced diver who has lived the last eight years in Curacao and Sint Maarten, I think that Jupiter is probably a better destination for me personally. I have a few thousand dives on pretty reefs in both Curacao and Bonaire under my belt, and although we do get sharks, rays and turtles here in Sint Maarten, the opportunity of seeing more of the bigger stuff is my main reason for this vacation.

Having said that I will be in Florida for 14 days and staying on Singer Island, so I think at least one trip down to Boynton Beach is on the cards, as well of course at least a couple of dives at The Heron Bridge .

The live-aboard sounds great, but I will have my non diving wife with me who is expecting to get a little shopping done whilst in Florida.

A couple of final questions, when I do go to Boynton Beach what are the "must do dive sites" I should be looking for, and who in your opinion is the best operator to do them with?

Finally I've seen quite a few operators mentioned for Jupiter, can anyone give me any recommendations on their favorites, considering that I would like to try an avoid large crowded boats, and I'm also not really into diving with "spear fishing divers"?

Thanks again for the feedback so far!
Nivek

PS. if you need any tips on Curacao or Sint Maarten let me know !

Avoiding spearos in Jupiter is a bit tricky; the numbers of big fish in the area mean most charters are going to have some trigger-pullers onboard. Narcosis handles this quite well; generally the hunters and sightseers get dropped off separately. On a reef dive, this means the hunters will get dropped off on the deeper face of the reef while the sightseers get dropped off on the backside. On wrecks the hunters will either get dropped off somewhere else or will get a few minutes' head start. Personally I don't mind being around them and sometimes even elect to get dropped off with the hunters, because they usually see most of the sharks. It's been quite a while since I've been out with JDC; Capt SL8R I don't remember having a lot of spearos onboard, and Ocean Quest is usually a mix. Emerald and Calypso are guaranteed to have shooters (and dead fish in crates) along for the ride. Not sure about other ops.

As far as crowding, it's a tradeoff. Granted, the bigger the boat, the more people will be on it. However, the bigger the boat, the better it will handle if the conditions get rough. Narcosis will load up to 24 divers, but given that it's a 48-foot boat a full load is less cramped than 12 divers on a 30-foot boat. If it's less about elbow room and more about just not having a lot of people in the water with you, Ocean Quest only takes a dozen on the Sandy's Sunday, which is a 30-foot Island Hopper.

As far as favorites, I've dove with Narcosis, Ocean Quest, Capt SL8R, and Emerald. Narcosis is a favorite; great boat and great crew. Ocean Quest is where I got my start diving the area; these days I'm typically carrying a little too much crap on my dives to fit comfortably aboard a full boat but Sandy and Vicky are great captains who know the area and diving well. Capt SL8R is a fun boat that goes for the "full-service" experience (carry your tanks and gear to and from the boat, etc); coupled with their later departure times, their "Lazy Sunday" trips, and that they dock right at the Square Grouper tiki bar it makes them sort of the party boat.

Emerald I like, and it's limited to 14 divers max on a sizable boat ... but if you don't like being around spearfishers, it doesn't sound like your pick. They do three-tank dives primarily as baited shark dives, with generally about 1/4-1/3 of the passengers bagging some fish on the way. If you don't like baited shark dives, deep/high current nitrox dives (typically they do one drift dive on the deep ledge in 120-140 feet of water and then two 90-foot wreck dives), or not being able to stop and smell the sights because your eyes are locked on a couple of tiger sharks and/or a dozen lemon sharks a few feet away snarfing up bait, the Emerald is DEFINITELY NOT your boat. On the other hand, if you're a complete nutjob (Randy's motto: "We're all here because we're not all there") and that appeals to you, it's a must-see.

 

[sportxlh]

One thing to check out is each shops' multi-trip discounts. I dive with Jupiter Dive Center most of the time and they have a pretty good deal on their pre-paid packages.

Aside from enjoying dives on JDC's boats, I've been out with a couple other boats which have been mentioned and are pretty good too such as Narcosis and Sandy's Sunday. I'm pretty sure they have multi-trip packages too.

As already mentioned, almost all the boats in northern Palm Beach County allow spearfishers. But spearo's almost never stay with the dive guides and recreational divers. If they don't get a separate drop, they almost always move away from the group and dive their own profile. I do the same thing during lobster season.